Monday

The two teams had days that included ¨pows¨ and ¨wows¨ today. One team stayed at la Casa de los Amigos and the other went to Cuernavaca. The home team struggle with Mexican paint... COMEX paint. A primer that was more like a wash. After a coat and one half, they abandoned primer and went right to finish coat paint. There was a trip to the taco restaurant for lunch and a pozole restaurant for dinner as a break from frustration. Two walls were finished and two walls and the ceiling to finish tomorrow. There is also a balcony that was quote primed unquote to finish. Trim is mostly done and the trim that is still attached needs to be done when walls and ceiling are complete. This work has closed the dining room tomorrow. This is an event that only happens for Christmas and other disasters, so we will be making our own breakfast tomorrow!

The other team went to Cuernavaca to teach the grade school folks. We arrived and set up the computers for a class in the AM. We received the copies of PIPO Mathematica and installed those successfully for our later class. The Learning to Read program entertained the first class with many of the students racing ahead to games we had never seen. We then went to the Sister´s of Guadalupena Cristo Rey for lunch and siesta. Bill got some quote life birds unquote. In other words, saw some birds for the first time in his life. There was also one that got away without being identified that may have been yet another life bird. But we will back here, Bill says. Rich tried in vain to get an operating system on one of the laptops that was donated. It is a beautiful, fast, powerful machine, Rich says, but without an operating system it is not much good. The Buena Tierra school has a computer volunteer who says he can fix it, so we left it with him. Paul went on a wild excursion to find a tree to replace the one removed at la Casa and discovered that flowers are more important than food plants in Cuernavaca, at least in this season. He also bought some fruit trees for the Sisters. The second class at Buena Tierra was just as wonderful. One particularly excited girl was so entranced by using the computer, that she waited around to see if we were coming on Wednesday, were we coming on Wednesday to do computers!?!?!?! The students were coaching each other as we provided only occasional assistance. Bills bird classes had us guessing who was more excited, Bill or the students. They learned quickly the different parts of the bird anatomy. Bill learned the Spanish words along with the kids. Lenors playdough was such as success that she needs ingredients to help the school learn to make their own also. There is no Mexican playdo to be had or perhaps it is like Mexican paint.

The Buena Tierra school, its staff and parents were very pleased at the work we did. The staff and residents at la Casa are excited about our presence and the work we are doing to make the building more pleasing and useful. I will be uplaoding pictures in just a little bit.... Stay tuned, folks!